Embodiments presented herein generally relate to cloud computing networks, and more specifically, to configuring network bonds to be compatible with a distributed virtualized multilayer switch.
Link aggregation bonds multiple network interface ports logically into a single port. When bonded, the multiple network interfaces appear to be the same physical device. For example, the bonded interface is associated with its own Media Access Control (MAC) address mapped to each physical network interface in the aggregated link. Link aggregation provides increased throughput, redundancy, fault tolerance, and load balancing in a computer network, such as in a cloud computing environment. UNIX-based operating systems (e.g., Linux) provide kernel modules that allow bonding of network interface ports.
Many cloud computing networks rely on distributed multilayer virtual switches to provide a switching stack for virtualized environments and also support multiple protocols and standards used in computer networks. However, certain distributed virtual switches are incompatible with bonded network interfaces created by UNIX-based operating systems. For example, the Open vSwitch (OVS) is an implementation of a distributed virtual switch that supports link aggregation protocols under the 802.1AX-2008 standard. However, OVS does not support standard Linux bonds under the IEEE 802.3AD standard. Consequently, cloud computing networks that want to use such distributed virtual switch implementations are typically unable to use such link aggregation protocols (e.g., the bonded interface would not receive frames passing through the virtual multilayer switch). Instead, such a network has to connect each individual network interface with the distributed virtual switch, which undoes the advantages provided by link aggregation.